Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to an ice storage bin and more particularly, to an ice storage transportation system for conveying ice between remotely located ice producing machines or plants and end user events requiring massive quantities of ice.
Background of the Invention
From Woodstock to Sturgis, from Talladega to the Rose bowl, America is a place where enormous crowds love to gather at super-sized events to have fun, relax, celebrate, compete and just enjoy life! Most of our country's largest events are held outdoors; in nice weather, resulting in massive amounts of crushed ice being consumed by the participants and attendees. For example, an Indy or NASCAR “race week” in warm weather can require over fifteen tractor trailer loads of crushed ice in order to function, totaling well over a half a million pounds! That's fifty thousand of those 10 lb. ice bags found in a grocery store. Large events always leave mountains of plastic trash in their wake, and much of this consist of thousands and sometimes tens of thousands of plastic ice bags and stretch wrap for disposal.
Along with the massive plastic waste involved, the physical challenge of actually getting this ice where it needs to go within these large venues is daunting. Back injuries account for nearly half of all injuries in the foodservice industry. Ice men or event staff arrive a day or two in advance of the event, and physically manhandle thousands of those 10, 20, and 40 lb. ice bags multiple times, before they finally land in one of the many ice boxes scattered throughout the stadium or grounds. The work is back straining and time consuming, which combined with all of the plastic waste it produces, is a process that has been screaming for innovation for decades.
Ice always ends up in a bucket, a cooler, a tub or some other container at an event. Seldom, if ever does its final use require the ice to be in the bag that it came in. And so every single one of the millions of ice bags that go to our events must be manually lifted, busted and then torn open one by one. Aside from all this unnecessary work, with the environmental issues we now face, millions of throwaway plastic bags are not needed at these events.
Numerous ice storage bins have been provided in the prior art. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,299,427 to Miller; 7,954,830 to Begin; and 3,930,377 to Utter all are illustrative of such prior art. While these units are designed as ice storage bins, they do not account for the transportation of massive quantities of ice from one location to the other.
Accordingly, a bagless event ice system (BEIST) that allows for the easy transportation of massive quantities of ice from one location to the other with minimal manual labor and environmental waste would be desirable.